Back for Revenge...
"No! Rose, save me! Help!" screamed Natalie.
I was awakened by the screams of my best friend, Natalie, who died three days ago and now I can't get myself back to sleep. Ever since Natalie was kidnapped by the Immortals then brutally murdered, I have never been able to ever sleep without having a nightmare about her. Most of my nightmares consist of her, pleading not to be killed, begging me to save her. I really wish I was there, that I was able to save her from those putrid Immortals that took her life. These Immortals are the most evil and devilish of all gods' around, they live among the dead and from what I know as well, they are the walking dead. There were not as many Immortals around before our time, but nowadays, there are a lot of them, this is particularly because most of us become Immortals by choice or by force. We either chose to turn ourselves around because of the benefits like eternal life and sharp senses etc, or we're forcibly turned around by the Immortals themselves.
There was a knock on the door, I knew instantly that it was Lisa. She was as devastated by the news of Natalie's death as much as I was, because Natalie was her cousin, but they were like blood sisters.
"Hey Rose, are you dressed yet?" asked Lisa. "We're late for breakfast you know,"
"Don't you mean dinner?" I snorted while pulling on clothes "Plus, it's Saturday anyway, we don't have any classes till Monday,"
The academy is set in the high woods of Montana safe from any exposure to humans as to what we do. We run on nocturnal timetables, unlike the rest of the world. When it's daytime, we sleep, but when it's night time, we go to our classes. In our classes, we learn to defend ourselves against the lifeless Immortals, we also learn about their strengths and weaknesses (well, that's if they have any) Immortals usually have one main weakness and that is the sun, they are allergic to the sun, if they go into the sun they would burn alive, so that is why they always come out at night to hunt. Usually Immortals are fast (I mean really fast) and they also have an incredible amount of strength, double the amount that we have as Dievans (commonly known as Mortals). Special classes are taken for students that have magic (like Lisa), but the only people that have magic are the ones that are true gods' and goddesses (children that were born from full god parents) and there are four main elements of magic and they are: earth, water, fire, air and a very rare one which only a few people have, is spirit, we use the four main elements to protect the academy that we go to, so that we are safe from any type of Immortal attacks. This is because Immortals don't have a soul, so they can't stand on any place that has magic or that is holy. As for me, I'm not a true goddess, my mother (who I don't really know since she dumped me in this school when I was two years old, just because she had to protect a true god), is half human and my dad (who I don't know) is a true god. That would technically make me three quarters human and one quarter goddess, but no, I'm half human half goddess, just like my mother (great!).
"Hey, Rose?" asked Lisa suspiciously.
"Yes, Lisa," I replied, wondering where this conversation was going.
"Have you ever wondered if Natalie would've wanted us to go after her killers'?" she asked with a voice so low, I could barely hear her. "I mean, she'd do that for us if one of us died,"
Those words really stung, because it reminded me of when we had an accident. I was in the car with Lisa, her parents and her older brother, when her dad lost control of the car and we ran off the road, tumbling and turning. Lisa said that when it all ended, everyone in the car (including me) had died. Everyone except Lisa, she was still in shock from the accident and from seeing that we had all died, that she used spirit (the element she specialises in) to bring me back to life. From then on we had a bond that would let me see into her mind and 'be her', I would actually experience and see what she's going through, so to say, I'm shadow kissed.
"Have you Rose?" prompted Lisa. We were now outside the cafeteria.
"Have you?" she asked again.
"I uh, I don't know," I said "I haven't thought about it much, it's not very pleasant to talk about,"
"Well, maybe,"
"There you are!" exclaimed Mason who was also half human, was a very typical guy with a cute face, blondish brown hair, smoky blue eyes and was a huge flirt, he especially liked flirting with me. "I've been looking everywhere for you Rose!" he protested.
"Why? What's the problem?" I asked feeling a bit suspicious, but he didn't answer. Instead he took my hand, intertwined our fingers and started leading me towards a table where all our friends were sitting, staring at us as the three of us approached the table. Judging from all their facial expressions, I knew instantly that something was wrong and I was determined to get it out of them, no matter what, until, my eyes met Victor Dashkov (Natalie's father) who was sitting there staring straight through my eyes. I stopped dead, why in the world was Victor doing here? He came before to get Natalie's leftover body parts, but why did he come back? He didn't have anything to do with this school anymore and why did he have two guardians? Then, it hit me like a tidal wave, but unfortunately, my brain was working a bit slow today because my mouth had already open fire at him.
"What are you doing here?" I shouted at him without thinking.
"Rose" warned one of the guardians, who I realised was Dimitri. Dimitri Belikov, in his guardian suit and oh, did he ever look so gorgeous, but I couldn't get distracted, not now.
"Mr. Dashkov is here for a reason Rose," continued Dimitri in a flat voice.
Pfff, obviously there must be a reason for him to be here, I thought to myself.
"Oh yeah?" I retorted "what's his reason then?" I glared at Victor hoping that it would have an effect on him, but he only smirked back at me.
"Mr. Dashkov here, planned his daughter's death," Dimitri added without a hint of emotion in his voice.
"What!" I exclaimed and lunged towards Victor, wanting to rip his throat out for doing it. But Mason dragged me back to him within a heartbeat and held me close, so that I wouldn't be able to escape. "But, how?" I pleaded, on the verge of tears "How could you do this? She was your daughter!"
"A daughter that wasn't meant to happen," Victor said without expression.
"What..." I tried to say, but he cut me off.
"But what?" he retorted "it's a big disgrace to have a daughter that's half human half god, my family is utterly disgraced,"
"What's so wrong about being half human?" I questioned, "I'm half human and it doesn't kill anyone to live around me or others like me,"
"It's different for you," he replied calmly.
"How?" I asked feeling puzzled "How is it any different?"
"Well, you were raised by your mother," he answered.
"Uh! Hardly," I retorted, I was going to come up with some other smartass comments when something struck me, I stared down at Victor and his facial expression said it all, I was drying his patience and wasting his time and he wasn't going to take it anymore.
"I know, but she took care of you before she put you into this academy," he said irately.
"And?" I questioned.
"Well, women take care of their children, even if their human," he replied calmly "For us men, in the Dievan world, we don't take care of children because it would be a disgrace, especially if the mother of the child was human,"
"Oh," was the best I could manage to get out of my mouth
"Yes, yes," he said mockingly "You should be able to understand why I had to kill her now, don't you?"
"Ok, I get it," I replied feeling annoyed for some reason "But what I also think is that, you should also be pit in prison for life,"
"Yes," answered Dimitri, who was so quiet during my little lecture it was like he wasn't even there, "That has been arranged for Mr. Dashkov and we have to leave now or we'll be late," he said, giving me a nod.
As everyone got up from the table and left, I turned around to Mason and hugged him. Still in that same position I said to Mason, "I'm hungry Mase,"
"I thought so," he said soothingly "Come on, let's go get something to eat,"
"But the canteen is closed," I started to protest, but he stopped me with a little kiss.
"I'll make sure they give you something to eat, ok?" he said with a smoky look in his eyes that made me think twice about him.
"Yeah, thank you," I replied.
After Mason made the canteen staffs give me something to eat, he took me to where all our friends were waiting for us. They were in the woods close to the academy border (where they use the four main elements to protect us from the Immortals).
"Hey guys," I greeted them as I sat down on a small bumpy rock
"Hey," they all greeted me in unison and I knew straight away that something was wrong.
"Ok," I said strongly "I can't take this anymore, what is going on?"
Without a word everyone turned and looked at Lisa, their eyes burning with rage and fear.
"Rose?" asked Lisa on the verge of tears
"What?" I answered a bit harshly "What's going on?"
"You have to come with us no matter what," Lisa tried to say but I cut her off
"Go where?" I questioned feeling puzzled and a bit dizzy.
"Sshh Rose, calm down," Mason said calmingly trying to get a better grip if my hand. Mason always knew what was going to happen to me next, I don't know how but he always did. I took a few deep breaths, then nodded at Lisa to continue.
"Rose, we've all decided that we are going after Natalie's killers no matter what and we want you to come with us because you're experienced in knowing and killing some of the Immortals," she said in a low voice
"Um..." I couldn't think straight right now, she said that I should go because I've got experience with killing Immortals. That brought flashbacks of when we tried to save Natalie, on our way there I killed five Immortals in order to get past them.
"Please Rose, we need you," she pleaded while small teardrops formed in her jade green eyes and I couldn't take it anymore so I turned around and looked straight into Mason's smoky blue eyes and he nodded.
"Ok, I'll do it, but this is only going to happen if we all agree to stick together no matter what ok?" I said sternly
"Ok," they all said again in unison.
Yes! Lisa exclaimed through our bond, it struck me like nothing before, she was obviously happy that I'd agreed to go with them. I love you Rose, this means so much to me she said. Then when I looked up from where I was staring at the ground, I saw her smile, as long as she was happy, nothing mattered.
"Ok guys," I interrupted them "If we are going to go after them we need a plan, ok?"
"Right!" rejoiced Lisa, "I have a plan,"
So there we are trying to figure out a plan to go and kill Natalie's murderers, coming up with strategies that if we were confronted by an Immortal what we would do and things like that, half the time I didn't know what I was saying, but I knew it was right because everyone was nodding. We talked and talked till it was curfew, when we ran out of ideas, we all decided that it was official and that we were leaving campus tomorrow night. After that we all broke apart, Lisa went to her dorm with her boyfriend Christian and Mason took me to my dorm.
"Have a good night's rest ok?" he said as he leaned down and kissed me on the lips when we came to my room "Goodnight Rose," he whispered at last and shut the door for me and went to his dorm.
After Mason left, I tucked myself into bed and drifted off to sleep. Then I woke up in the school's rec room.
"Hey Rose!" called Natalie as she walked over and sat next to me on the couch, "How are you feeling?" she asked with that dazzling smile of hers that always made you smile back.
"I'm fine, a bit tired though," I replied, feeling weak.
"Oh I know," she confided, "I won't keep you for that long, promise, ok?"
"Ok," I agreed, "How have you been lately?" I asked her
"Well," she paused for a minute, "It hasn't been any good, until you made the decision to go after those putrid, disgusting, lifeless Immortals and kill them for me,"
"Really?" I asked feeling amazed at how she would be happy.
"Yes," She replied with a grin, "You're doing the right thing Rose, you won't regret it, believe me ok?'' she said trying to keep a straight face.
"I know I'm doing the right thing," I reassured her, "Because if you were in my position, you would do the same for me and for Lisa," I smiled at her.
"Thank you Rose," she replied in a whisper, "I won't keep you any longer, you need your rest, ok? Bye Rose, sweet dreams," she whispered again as everything faded and went blank and I was back in my head, fading slowly into the world of slumber.
Tap, tap. I sprang upright in my bed, feeling irritated by that tapping noise on my window. I got up from my bed and went to the window, looked down and saw Mason with a backpack swung over his shoulder looking up at me.
"You awake yet sleeping beauty?" he asked, "We have to leave now, hurry up and get down here,"
"Oh right! Be there in five minutes," I replied and rushed off to find my backpack. Once I found it, I got two handfuls of clothes and stuffed it in there with some money just in case. I swung the backpack over my shoulder, swung the door open and smashed straight into Dimitri. Uh oh, he must've heard the annoying tapping noise and decided to take a look for himself.
"Whoa! Where are you off to at a time like this Roza?" he questioned, he always said my name in Russian when we were alone.
"Nowhere," I replied sternly and lunged towards his stomach so I could punch it, but seeing as Dimitri had years of practise he blocked me and knocked me against the wall. This reminded me of fighting Isaiah (the leader of the Immortals) when we were looking for Natalie, so I lunged at him again, this time giving a big blow at his groin and ran as fast as I could towards a set of windows. Once I reached it, I slid one of the windows across, making an opening big enough for me to jump through, as I climbed over the railings, I could her footsteps coming towards me, obviously Dimitri had recovered from the attack a lot quicker than I thought. I jumped through the window (my room was on the second floor so I couldn't have gotten hurt if I jumped anyway) and landed swiftly in front of Mason and caught him by surprise.
"Now that is what I love about you," he said as he helped me get to my feet.
"We have to get out now!" I said in a rush, "Dimitri's going to catch us if we don't leave now!"
"It's just us that have to leave campus," he replied, "the others are outside, east of the gates waiting for us,"
With that we both broke off into a run, I was heaps faster than him because of all the training Dimitri made me do. Once we reached the invisible border, we checked in case one of the teachers were on duty, once it was clear that there wasn't anyone here, we started running again, this time we headed north-east to where Lisa and the others were waiting for us. When we saw them, we used all the energy leftover in us to sprint towards them.
"We've got a lift ready," Christian said as he nodded towards a minivan, his eyes filled with flames and I guessed that Christian probably used his element (which is fire) to burn the driver of the van so we could use it.
"Cool," I replied feeling exhausted. We all got into the minivan and Eddie Mason's best friend started driving towards the sun as it started to rise, while I rested my head on Mason's chest and drifted off to sleep again, I needed to get some rest in order to be on my best hunting.
I woke up when Mason gave me a little nudge, I realised that we were in front of McDonalds. Eddie was taking orders and I said that I wanted a large cheese burger with small fries and a medium coke, then I reached for my bag to get the money when Mason took my hand squeezed it then put it on his lap and handed over thirty dollars.
"Thanks Mase," I said in a very low voice, but he heard me and pulled me closer to him.
After we ate our meals, we set out on a 3 hour drive to a place called Missoula, which was the place where the Immortal's main hideout was and that was also the place where they took Natalie and held her captive until they killed her. These Immortals were fully grown, matured Immortals that you wouldn't want to waste your time with, but we planned that no matter what we would stay there and finish them off for good just because of what they did to Natalie, but the only way to kill them was to stab their heart with a stake that was made from all four of the main elements. Our plan was to attack during daytime so that we would have the advantage, but we had one problem, we had to kill all or most of them before dawn because then the advantage would be on the Immortal's side and we wouldn't stand a chance. Once we were finished, we were to head straight back to the academy where we would probably in a lot of trouble. I was trying to figure out what we would do if they turned one of us into them when Mason interrupted my thoughts.
"Rose? Rose, wake up we are here," he said in a hushed whisper.
As I opened my eyes I could see everyone getting ready, I shot out from my seat to look for my bag. Once I found my bag I dug into it and found my stake at the bottom of my bag. The sun was just rising so that was good.
"Ok guys," I said feeling nervous, "Are you all ready?"
"As ready as we will ever be," replied Christian with a look of uncertainty
" We're ready Rose," agreed Eddie with a smile
"Ok, I will go over the plan one more time ok?" I asked rather in a harsh tone, "Here is what we will do, we are going to stick together as a group, act normal ok?"
They all nodded.
"Then," I continued, "We'll check every corner of the house and make sure that there is no one outside,"
"Cool," Christian said with a shaky voice.
"I am not done yet Christian," I said coldly, "After we checked that the house is clear, we go in and take one step at a time, leave the door open so that there will be light entering the house, take down anyone you can and always remember to keep alert at all times ok?"
They all nodded
"Ok guys," I said at last, "let's go,". As soon as I said that we all broke into a run knowing that if we wasted more time we wouldn't succeed. As we came round the corner where there was a huge two storey ancient building was, we immediately recognised it, it was the same old building that we broke into to try and save Natalie. I pointed to the side walls of the house at Eddie and Mason reminding them to check the sides of the house to see if it was clear, they checked it then came back and they both nodded at me saying it was clear. I used my index finger to point at all of them to follow my lead, then I headed towards the house and they followed in sync. Once I reached the front door, I motioned for all of us to stick together, I took my stake out, then I smashed the door down, letting the sun's rays into the house. I was a bit slow to look up because I was thrown into a corner by a huge and strong Immortal, I immediately recognised his face, he was the only Immortal that escaped when we came to find Natalie. Now I was going to make him pay for what he had done to my best friend. I quickly got to my feet and took a defensive stance, he lunged at me again this time with his full body force, but I was lucky enough to dodge his attack. I didn't waste time though, I immediately landed a blow on his neck and heard him grunt in pain, I didn't stop there, I kicked the back of his knee so he fell to the floor, then I turned him over with all the strength that I had left, punched his face and then at last stabbed his chest with my stake, it went deep into his chest until I was sure that I had pierced his heart. The now dead Immortal let out a painful, ear piercing scream before he went still. I was then attacked with another Immortal this one wasn't much bigger than me so I blocked her then gave her a big blow in the stomach then staked her.
I turned round to check if Lisa was alright only to find her tormenting an Immortal through compulsion, Christian was burning his last Immortal and Eddie and Mason just finished staking their last Immortal.
"Ok, guys," I said reassuringly, "I think we're done, though I am not entirely sure, yet. Christian, Eddie, Mase, take Lisa back to the van and I will meet you there, I just want focus first. Killing an Immortal is nothing to be proud of," I said coldly.
As they made their way to the car, I fell to the floor, feeling really guilty for taking their lives but they took Natalie's life so they deserved it for all they were worth. I was sobbing by now when the door suddenly shut with a huge SLAM! I shot up to my feet ready for anything but I was too late, I could hear Lisa screaming outside.
"Rose!," she screamed, "Rose? What happened? Did you shut the door? Rose?" she kept on screaming again and again, repeating the same words, once I realised that it was obviously an Immortal that shut the door I started screaming.
"Lisa!," I screamed, "Go find help, please! Please Lisa,"
"I love you Rose!" she shouted back, "Keep yourself safe and we will come back for help!" she said at last as I heard the van start and took off, not wasting any time.
"I love you too, Lisa," I said in a whisper
"Do you?" asked the Immortal, "Because I think if you do, you wouldn't be here, you shouldn't be here at all!" he exclaimed as he shoved me hard against the wall. This Immortal I could tell as I took in his appearance was a bit young, he had shabby brown hair and jade green eyes tinged with red and wasn't that much taller than me actually.
"I do love her!" I exclaimed through clenched teeth and stabbed his chest with my stake, but he was quick, he got my hand halfway and put it on his chest and then unexpectedly and as fast as lightning, bit into my neck. I let out a weird strangled scream before staking him hard in the chest, digging deep until my hand was all covered in blood. The Immortal fell to the ground and soon after I fell too, I wasn't sure if I was going to die or whether I was going to turn into an Immortal myself, but I was sure that I was going to turn into one of them because the bite really stung like hell. I took in five deep breaths before I dozed off into what I would call hell. I appeared in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by red, hot, burning flames, they weren't burning me but I could feel the pain as if it was burning me. After what seemed like forever! I heard footsteps approaching me, I quickly swerved round to see who it was but all I could see was the red, engulfing flames around me. I started to panic...but then everything started to fade away and I could see a figure kneeling down in front of me.
"Rose?" said a familiar voice, "Roza, are you all right?" he lent forward to put me in an upright position. Apparently that was not such a godly idea to do because I started to get tense.
"Oww!" I screamed, "Watch it, I'm not very stable as you can see!" My body was smothered in blood, there was a huge purplish bruise on my neck where the bite marks were. It started to sting again, except this time only ten times worser. "Aaahh!" I screamed feeling like I was getting burnt alive.
"What Rose?" Dimitri asked, unable to figure out why I screamed, "What is wrong Rose? Please tell me Rose, I'll help you," he pleaded
I could feel my throat burning even worse now, as I struggled to breathe. "I..." I tried to say, "I can't, I can't breathe!" I finally said "Dimitri help!" I started screaming again. I could feel him pull me into his arms, he started to say something in Russian that I couldn't understand but it sounded soothing so I guess he was trying to comfort me. It all happened within a heartbeat, I felt like my heart had just exploded inside my chest! "Dimitri No!" I said in a strangled whisper as I breathed in my last breath, my spirit sullenly left my body and a mysterious black hole appeared in front of me. This black hole, as I can recall, led to the world of the dead where dead spirits roam around doing nothing necessary. I turned around and heard Dimitri sobbing and saw my lifeless body in his arms.
"No, Roza, no," he repeated over and over again as his face flooded with tears. "Please come back Roza," he begged.
"I wish I could," I whispered to myself and with that I turned around and started heading towards the black hole. Memories of Lisa and me laughing, enjoying each other's company flashed in front of my eyes as I broke into a cry realising how much I would miss her and her friendly, joking attitude. But I couldn't turn back now, I had to move on, to what sort of life laid in front of me, probably filled with loneliness and more suffering. I took one last breath as the last tear dropped from my face and I entered the black hole, who knows, maybe life after death wouldn't be that bad, maybe, just maybe, I would have a second chance at life again, just like all the mighty gods and goddesses do, but who knows? I might even die again...